The Beauty of Seashells
by Gaara-chama2604
Summary: How can a simple day at the Host Club spiral into despair? For Kaoru, there are plenty of ways. I hate summaries. Rated M for language and -cough- future content. Hitachiincest. Possible lemons later on. Mm. Citrusy.
1. Oh? Kei?

Disclaimer : I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. (Because, you know, you'd so have me writing fanfiction if I did. -.-)

The redhead shivered. Music swirled around him, dancing in the air, little notes begging to be thrust into the light, shone in all their beauty to the world.

Okay, that was definitely over-romanticizing things. Even so, he couldn't help but picture it. Still, though, who would imagine him listening to this kind of music? It could be so depressing, so violent at times.

Currently, though, he would readily admit that he just didn't care. An arm circled his shoulders. He jumped.

"Jesus, Kaoru, you're just completely oblivious listening to this, aren't you?" the mirror image of the redhead said, laughing, removing one of his earphones. He was tempted to growl at him, but what kind of point would that make?

After placing the earphone in his own ear, he frowned. Kaoru grabbed at the iPod to change the song. "Dir en Grey?" came the voice.

Too late.

I looked to my brother, turning a slight shade of scarlet. I nodded, mute for once, changing the song quickly. I couldn't make eye contact with my twin right now.

He was… laughing? Why was he laughing? I turned slightly, staring at him, mouth hanging open ever-so-slightly.

"Since when do you listen to them? Especially their old stuff? You'd think that I knew my twin better than that."

The scarlet deepened. It was now crimson.

He raised an eyebrow. I forced a laugh, before realizing just how funny this could really seem, if I let it. My shoulders shook, and my mirror shook his head, looking to where one blonde second-year was waiting for us. I stood, Hikaru following almost immediately.

I could feel his fingers intertwining with mine as the first(there are different ones) chorus of _Love Scream Party_ played in both of our ears.

'_daikirai dakedo suki kokoro no mama majiwaritai  
ochiru kara motto yoku shite? horerta hou no make_'

['_I hate you but I love you; I want to change the way of my heart  
Since you failed do you want to do it better? It's the defeat of a person who fell in love_]

My heart throbbed painfully at the lines. Yeah, what a wonderful time for that line to play, right as we're walking towards Tono. My face must have contorted or something in my moment of agony, as he stared at me, apparently concerned. No one spoke for a minute, before he decided that it was really nothing, smiling once more. I liked to see Tono smile. It just brought up the spirits of the whole club. "Alrighty then," he said eagerly, "go change!"

I stared at him blankly for a moment. You had to be kidding me. Tono? Tono said 'alrighty'? Oh God, what was the world coming to?

Hikaru must have been thinking the same, as he stared at me for a moment, before pulling me by my hand towards the changing area, where our costumes for the day would be set up. Truthfully, I couldn't think of anything more awkward than what Tono had come up with this time.

It wasn't exactly more unusual than the normal things that he would have us dress up in, but really. I mean, come on, why the hell did he have to pick a –kei theme?

Why the hell had Kyouya ok'ed it?

So, that meant that Hikaru and I got to dress up in these lovely, elaborate costumes with heavy make-up. Oh, come on? Did he want us to scare away the customers?

At least he hadn't picked us to be from Buck-tick or something equally as dark. No, he had left that for Mori-sempai, and his 'lovely item' was certain to balance him out, the only one of us allowed to dress in an oshare fashion.

Alright, perhaps I should explain this a bit better. Visual/oshare kei is a division of Jrock. Basically, you get a bunch of guys that enjoy wearing thick make-up and overdone costumes, in the ideology that it gets people hooked. I'll be honest, it rather does for many girls, but many like myself just find it odd. Come on, who wants to see a dude in short-shorts with a cut-off kimono as a top?

Who that's _male_?

Alright, maybe I had no room to speak here. After all, I was lusting over my twin brother. I honestly wouldn't mind him in something like that. Even so, that wasn't going to happen. We were to have almost identical costumes, _with pants_. Kyouya had been sure to make it very clear to Tono that he was not to have 'those idiots' as cross-dressers. Why, you may ask? Because we really don't need to pay any medical bills for some girl dying of a heart attack on the spot. At least, that's what I had convinced myself.

Even so, I couldn't believe the audacity he had. Having us change out of our school uniforms only to switch into ones that were so much lower in class? Evil.

Well, at least we weren't done up like we could have been. We hadn't been told of our costumes, told that they were a surprise. To be honest, this really was a surprise. You would think that Tono would have us in something much more flashy and daring. Apparently he just wanted us to match. How… thoughtful. I turned around momentarily, fixing my tie in the mirror. Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands at my neck. I froze, only to feel the weight of a necklace drop on my neck.

Well, that was a relief. At the moment of the thought, however, the hands moved to my lower back. I stiffened. I didn't care if it was just Hikaru tucking my shirt in.

I glanced over my shoulder to look at him. "Hikaru, I can get that."

He smiled, straightening up and looking me in the eye. "Too late."

Again? Really. I needed to speed up my reaction time with my twin here.

As we walked from the changing room, I stopped dead. If I felt lucky that Hikaru and I didn't have to deal with overdone make-up, Tono was on the complete other end of the scale. His eyes, or, at least the one you could see, were covered in heavy black eyeliner, with a drawn-on teardrop coming from the middle of that eye down to almost the lower half of his cheek. His lips were a soft carnation color, and, God, what was he wearing?

There was nothing wrong with it, technically, but it was _all black._ Black hat. Black shirt. Black pants. Black shoes. What the hell, Tono?

He gave us the once-over, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Un-tuck the shirts, and loosen the ties. Also, Hikaru's wearing the necklace, right? The guitars over in the corner are for you two."

I didn't even comment, pulling the bottom of the button-down shirt out of my pants.

Before I could so much as touch my tie, though, he was speaking again, offering more corrections. "Oh, and roll up your sleeves to your elbows."

What the hell? How did he know any of this?

"Tono—" I started, though I was cut off before I could finish my question.

"What the hell? How do you know any of this? On top of that, we don't know how to play guitars!"

I turned to look at my twin as he spoke, so angrily. It was strange for him to get so worked up over something stupid like a cosplay day.

Tamaki looked as surprised as I felt, but responded easily. Of course he did. That bitch.

"Well, one of my princesses recommended the idea," that figured, "and it doesn't matter if you can't play them. They're just to complete the outfits."

I shook my head. "Tono, let it be known that this theme is officially hated."

As if on cue, Haruhi walked out of where she had been changing, looking positively adorable. Okay, maybe Honey-sempai wasn't the only one that had been allowed to dress in an Oshare Kei fashion. Of course, though, how else could you get something that Haruhi's customers would love her in?

I could nearly feel the physical heat from Tamaki and Hikaru turning red behind me. Oh, come on. It was pink. It didn't make her look all that more girly.

I grabbed my brother's hand, dragging him back towards our corner. I couldn't so much as take off the necklace before Hikaru had one hand gently at my throat. I paused, wondering what he was doing. Immediately, though, out of the corner of my eye, I saw what was egging him on into his actions. Already? What? But… Mori-sempai and Honey-sempai hadn't even come out yet. Why were they all here so early?

Despite all of this, I knew what to do. I leaned forward a bit, allowing my twin to reach around my neck, undoing the clasp that held the necklace in place. I smiled, and our foreheads pressed together as he pulled the necklace away from my neck. A squeal erupted from one of the girls that had just walked in, and my eyes darted sideways to her, my cheeks colouring scarlet.

"Hikaru, why didn't you tell me girls had walked in?" I asked quietly, feigning hurt.

In all honesty, the fucking principle could walk in to that sight and I wouldn't care. Albeit, though, that scene seemed as though it would never exist except for the girls.

"I'm sorry," he said, one hand caressing my cheek, "I just didn't want to wait for an opportunity to spring up again."

"Hikaru…" I murmured softly, looking up at him.

All too quickly, though, if you ask me, it was over, Hikaru pulling back as he fastened the necklace around his neck. Fingers entwined once more, as I wished they could be all the time, we walked to retrieve the guitars perched carefully against the wall. No, though, that was a sick thought of me, to wish that our hands were together all the time. Why did I want that? No. Just plain no.

I was spacing again, wasn't I? I picked up one of the guitars carefully, walking with it back to the couch, where I set it down. It was a dark navy blue, almost black, like the one Hikaru carried. I leaned in to him slightly, smiling at our guests. There were two girls seated in front of us, just across the table. One of them was positively gushing. "Oh, you're supposed to be Tora and Hiroto, aren't you?"

I paused, feeling Hikaru do the same beside me. "Tora?" I asked, only to hear Hikaru repeat the other name at the same time I did.

The guest giggled, shaking her head. "No, because you're wearing Tora's necklace," she said, looking at Hikaru.

'_Tora?_' I thought to myself blankly. Who was Tora?

"That also means you have your guitars mixed up," she pointed out, looking so completely innocent, that I couldn't help but be just a bit taken aback. "Oh, I've always wanted to see you two as part of Alice Nine! You just look so beautiful in those uniforms! It's like you actually got to be a part of Shunkashuutou!"

I was speechless. Hikaru, apparently, was not. "Well, of course," he said, smiling the whole time, "we just wanted to have a little bit of each other during this forbidden time."

He looked away then, one hand trailing down the neck of the guitar. I was actually blushing. I hardly had to act to do that any more.

'_The four seasons? Alice Nine? What on Earth is this girl going on about?_' I though to myself, reaching to my twin and laying my lips against his cheek as I spoke. "You know that it's only a matter of time before giving in, the girls here or not."

I heard squeals at those words, and knew that they had accomplished that goal. It wasn't hard to accomplish the goal of keeping the girls wanting more, though. Actually, that was my easiest goal to accomplish right now. '_Hikaru, you can be dense at the worst of times, can't you?_'

"They're just too gushy for Hiroto and Tora," one girl's voice came.

My head turned, only to hear another of the female's defending us. "Too gushy? Quite the contrary, they're playing their roles perfectly!"

What was with these girls, I ask you?

Author : Gah! I'm so sorry for all of the obscure references in this chapter. I didn't mean for it to end up that way.

Uhm, I'll go through notes as I have them.

I tried to explain Visual Kei and Oshare Kei as best I could without it really standing out, but still, for those who don't know, Visual/Oshare kei is a form of Japanese performance for rock bands that is based around bright colours and eye-catching costumes and make-up.

Oshare kei, basically, is about more happy things, and reflects this in its style with lots of pink, yellow, and white.

Mostly pink.

Buck-tick is a very dark-toned Visual Kei band.

Dir en Grey, is, completely by coincidence, also visual kei but also [in]famous for their excessively dark/depressing/violent songs. It's like Japanese screamo, as my gf puts it.

Alice Nine is another visual kei band, but not nearly as dark as Buck-tick or Dir en Grey, but not light enough to be considered Oshare Kei. They're like your one true compromise band when it comes to Visual Kei. Them and The Gazette.

Tora and Hiroto are the guitarists for Alice Nine (a-duuhh.) and wear –nearly- matching outfits in the PV for 'Shunkashuutou' which translates to 'The Four Seasons' or 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.'

Basically, Kaoru doesn't like Visual Kei enough to dress up like it. –teehee- so that's why he's griping.

-ahem- also, the 'short-shorts and cut-off kimono top' reference refers to what Shou (from Alice Nine) wears in the PV for Gradation.

Sorry again. I didn't mean to cause any confusion.

Song(s) of the chapter (A.K.A. What I was listening to while I wrote) – the artist SuG


	2. What now?

Sometimes, I really hated Fujioka Haruhi. Why?

Well, today, it was mainly for the fact that she had completely _ruined_ our act for a moment, by speaking up. The usual cause, though, was the fact that was bothering me now. As she shrugged and walked away, presumably to get to her own guests, I could feel her eyes on us. Not me, us.

Namely, that is, the one of us that wasn't me. Did I say anything, though? No, of course not. I merely tensed and fumed silently to myself. It was fine that she liked him. It was fine, even, that he liked her. That was only _normal._ What more did I expect? My brother was straight, after all, I was fairly certain. Still, though, it really, really pissed me off.

Even when she didn't intend to do it, I could feel her staring at him.

Always.

Again, and again, and again. Did she do this just to irritate me? I had come to expect as such.

Why couldn't she have just worked with Kasanoda? Goddammit, woman! He's not that creepy! Then again, there was always...

I bit down on the inside of my lip, almost wanting the taste of blood to flow into my mouth. I knew it could, if I just bit hard enough. I looked up, about to say something, only to pause, suddenly frightful.

Why was I not inside the third Music Room? No, the more important question was as to why I was not _besdie Hikaru_ as well as within the third Music Room.

When had I walked out of there? That was obviously what had become, too, as I was aware that there had been no-one in that room capable of taking me out of the room other than the hosts themselves that would not recieve multiple threats about getting a finger taken off in the process. Come to think of it, such a person would probably have a finger taken off by _someone_ whether they succeeded in getting him outside the room or not.

Still, though, when had I walked out? Had I really been that pissed off? I sighed, knowing that going back in at this point would do nothing more than look bad. I turned away from the doors, folding my arms and staring at the wall for just a moment, before heading at random down the hallway. I really didn't care that I wasn't heading towards the exit. I knew my way around, so wherever I ended up, I could always get back.

~*-*~

I stared. '_What the hell, Kaoru, are you doing?'_

He certainly hadn't informed me on this little part of our act. Was he alright? All I knew is that the girls were now talking amongst themselves. I could hear parts of their conversation, like how Kaoru must be hiding something, or I said something I shouldn't have. I didn't, did I?

Trying to think back at the conversation, there was really very little I could recall. A hand clasped my shoulder suddenly. I nearly jumped, but refrained from such an action, looking back at Kyouya.

Alright, maybe _clasp_ was not quite the right word, but he had touched my shoulder for a moment to get my attention. He spoke without complete regard to me, already looking off in another direction, glasses perfectly shielding his eyes. I blinked a few times, staring in slight confusion.

"I would suggest that you go get your brother before he does soemthing stupid."

Kaoru? Do something stupid? That seemed fairly unlikely, but still... this was Kyouya we were talking about. You didn't mess with him. He tended to do things you didn't want to even _know about_ if you messed with him.

Especially not now. He didn't have to touch you for you to die, but now, with those gloves, he could, and no one would ever know. Damn, he looked scary.

I nodded hastily, standing and apologizing to the guests still situated in front of our table before heading out the door. Was it just me, or was there someone staring at my back as I left? It felt that way, but I had never been one who was good with feelings like that. They tended to be wrong.

I looked around in the hallway, biting my lip. That wasn't something I would normally do. I didn't get nervous, after all, but... where was he? Glancing right, I could have sworn I saw someone's leg disappear around the corner. I ran off in that direction, almost growling when I saw whose leg I had seen, some random student, but kept running, determined to find him.

Three or four corners later had me flying into _someone_, us both landing face-down on the tile. I was lying half-across him, and apologized quickly, before even taking in the auburn hair. Immediately, my arms wrapped around him, trapping him from going any further. He stared at me in confusion.

"Kaoru, what's wrong?"

I could feel the regret and pain washing over him, but... why wasn't he looking at me? What was going on here?

"It's nothing."

I froze. What did he mean it was nothing? We didn't lie to each other. I knew he was lying. Why would he lie to me? "Kaoru--"

A shrill shriek cut me off, and we winced, together, in unison, the way it should be, though it felt a bit wrong right now. "What the hell?!"

~*-*~

Author : Okay, so I'm really, really sorry that this took so long to get out. I was busy, and then went on vacation, so... it's not entirely my fault. I didn't have internet for a good deal of the time. Anyways, I've worked my ass off with this chapter, and I know it's short, but that's because I had to do it in WordPad....

do you know what a hassle it is to work in WordPad?

Also, I noticed my lines in the last chapter didn't show up. Anyone know why? Oh well.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank **NinjaliciousBabe** for actually reviewing. I know that _way_ more people than her have hit the story, so if you're reading, please drop by a review, even if it's only a few words. Thanks.


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